The contentious story surrounding U.S. Olympian Jordan Chiles and her disputed bronze medal has entered another intriguing chapter. In a back-and-forth battle, the Court of Arbitration for Sport decided earlier this week that the bronze medal should be awarded to Romania's Ana-Maria Bărbosu, rather than Chiles, after extensive administrative disputes.
Subsequently, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation suggested a King Solomon-like solution, involving a third competitor in the decision, adding a unique twist to the situation. This came as the USA Olympic Committee on Wednesday accused the Court of Arbitration for Sport of making shocking mistakes in its management of the case, that cost Chiles to lose her Paris Olympics bronze medal.
Twist in the Tale
"The initiative to award bronze medals to all three athletes, Jordan Chiles, Ana-Maria Bărbosu, and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, was proposed by the lawyers of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, with the prior approval of the Federation," the Federation said in a statement.
"The leadership of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation (FRG), through its representatives, took all necessary steps to reach this consensus. We emphasize that certain requests were made by the American side to achieve this goal, and our side consistently complied with these requests, a fact that was appreciated by the American representative."
Maneca-Voinea, another gymnast from Romania, was also involved in a contentious scoring issue during the disputed floor exercise.
Initially, the judges declared Bărbosu as the medal winner.
The United States challenged this decision, and Chiles' score was eventually deemed higher. However, the IOC later said that Team USA's appeal was submitted too late, missing the one-minute deadline.
USA Gymnastics has maintained that it has proof showing the appeal was submitted within the required time.
US Fires Back at CAS
This came as on Wednesday, the USOPC claimed that CAS mistakenly emailed the wrong people within the American organization regarding the actions being taken against Chiles. This error left them with very little time to respond before the decision was made to award Romania's Ana Barbosu the bronze medal from the floor final, taking it from the U.S. gymnast.
In a statement reported by USA Today, the USOPC mentioned that notifications were sent to "incorrect email addresses," and it took three days for CAS to finally reach Chris McCleary, their general counsel, after Romania filed its appeal challenging Chiles' score.
"The USOPC strongly contests the CAS decision due to significant procedural errors. From August 6-9, CAS sent crucial communications to erroneous email addresses at USOPC and USAG, an error not corrected until Aug. 9 - three days after filing, two days past the deadline to submit objections and less than 24 hours before the hearing," the statement said.
It adds: "This deprived us of adequate time to respond meaningfully or gather necessary evidence. We informed CAS of our objections immediately.
"Our objections have since been validated by new evidence indicating administrative errors by FIG (The International Gymnastics Federation) and mishandlings by CAS, which would have been impossible to raise at the time of the rushed hearing. In short, we were denied a meaningful opportunity to be heard.
"Given these circumstances, we are committed to pursuing an appeal to ensure Jordan Chiles receives the recognition she deserves. Our pursuit of truth in this matter remains unwavering."
On Tuesday, it was also revealed that the panel chair overseeing the decision regarding Chiles' bronze medal has strong connections to Romania.
As Christine Brennan of USA Today noted, there is a precedent for awarding shared medals in cases of disputed judgments.
